For years, on March 2nd, we used to don red & white striped hats in honor of the Cat in the Hat and Dr. Seuss' birthday. In recent years, the National Education Association (NEA) has expanded from Read Across America Day to 12 months of recommended books, authors, and teaching resources that promote diversity and inclusion. Create and Celebrate a Nation of Diverse Readers; all for the love of literacy...  The theme for February is: Advance Racial Justice.  Love is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement by Sandra Neil Wallace, a picture book biography of Civil R ..read more

Love is in the air! Valentine's Day is always an exciting time for students and I love it because it gets them to focus on others, rather than on "getting".  In the spirit of this heart-filled day, this favorite math lesson uses conversation hearts to reinforce upper grade math concepts. Give each student (or pair of kids) a baggie of conversation hearts. First, have them estimate how many conversation hearts are in their baggie. (Hint: to make decimals & percentages conversion simpler, have 20 OR 25 hearts per baggie) Next, count and sort hearts by color. Students record their find ..read more

Keeping students' attention and motivation is always a challenge.  Here are four tried & true games that kids love to play while learning! As I was trying to think of ways to review information without droning on & on,  I happened to walk into my parents' garage. While not quite worthy of Hoarders, my mom has kept quite a few things from my sisters' & my childhood!!  I was SO excited to find our old Toss Across game!! We used to love playing with it back in the 1970's, even though it's a complete game of chance  luck. This game is ALWAYS a BIG hit w ..read more

By the end of last school year, I was completely burnt out.  Very unlike my "usual self", I made the conscious choice to NOT spend my extra time during summer to plan, go to workshops or conferences, read educational books or even think about school. I read books for pleasure, traveled, and spent lots of time with friends and family.  The summer flew by;  and I started YEAR 37 (egads!) last week with a renewed energy and excitement for teaching!! If you're having a hard time trying to get back into the swing of things, not to worry; I've done it for you! Here is a roundup of ..read more

By the end of last school year, I was completely burnt out.  So. . . very unlike my "usual self", I made the conscious choice to NOT spend my extra time during summer to plan, go to workshops or conferences, read educational books or even think about school. I read books for pleasure, traveled, and spent lots of time with friends and family.  The summer flew by;  and I started YEAR 37 (egads!) last week with a renewed energy and excitement for teaching! If you're having a hard time trying to get back into the swing of things, not to worry; I've done it for you! Here is a roundu ..read more

You've heard the saying that you can't teach subjects until students know you care. This year, especially after the last two years of uncertainty and inconsistency in schools, it is even more crucial to build connections, community and develop a caring class culture. Our school year began last week and instead of focusing on class rules, students brainstormed for their "dream classroom": what it would look like, what the content would be, projects, even how students would act and treat each other. They wrote ideas on individual sticky notes then in groups, kids determined whether their ideas ..read more

Keeping students' attention and motivation is always a challenge.  Here are four tried & true games that kids love to play while learning! As I was trying to think of ways to review information without droning on & on,  I happened to walk into my parents' garage. While not quite worthy of Hoarders, my mom has kept quite a few things from my sisters' & my childhood!!  I was SO excited to find our old Toss Across game!! We used to love playing with it back in the 1970's, even though it's a complete game of chance  luck. This game is ALWAYS a BIG hit wi ..read more

First week back after winter break. . . what a week! With our classroom numbers fluctuating due to students quarantining or testing positive, and so much uncertainty, diving right into the curriculum was not an option. We went back to the basics: what do we need to improve in?  Goal setting is often such an abstract idea for kids. I asked the class what they thought we needed to work on together. Wow, did they have a lot to say! They had such buy-in and were taking ownership of our class. We drew a quick bubble map of these needs, then I asked them to prioritize the needs (with justifica ..read more

Anyone else relate to this dinner scenario? "How was your day?"  "Fine." (Eat in silence or while scrolling on phones)  One of the biggest challenges I've noticed since being back in school in person is the need for conversational skills.  In class during morning meeting, we spend time devoted to talking and interacting with one another. While I can foster this in the classroom, I know practicing communication skills need to continue at home. In comes our holiday gift for our families: the Table Talk can. You repurpose any container you have around, but I love tea and I've been ..read more

This post is an oldie  (hence the maskless students) but goodie: When we spend enough time early in the year on place value and number sense, teaching multiplication and division go much more smoothly.  We always begin exploring abstract concepts with concrete manipulatives. Base 10 pieces are some of my favorite. As I pose various multiplication problems, student use the base 10 pieces to build & solve. This leads naturally into learning about area model and partial products (again, place value is the basis for these). We move from building multiplication problems to learning ..read more